Karl Schlögel Books

Twentieth-century Europe, especially Central Eastern Europe, has been largely defined by Russia and Germany. In this century, cultural and economic exchanges between the two countries were as active as the fires of hatred intense. The smaller states in between, with their unstable borders and internal minorities, suffered from the powers' alliances and their antagonisms. This volume of new research in political and cultural history examines the two powers' turbulent relationship, including the pre-1914 era of exchange and cooperation; the projects of modernity in post-revolutionary Russia and Weimar Germany; the struggle for dominance over Central Europe in World War II; and mutual views of Germans and Russians after 1945. In the wake of the crucial events of 1989 and the transformation of German-Russian relations, it asks whether the configuration of Russian-German relations that once dominated twentieth-century Europe has now dissolved, leaving us to find new ways of cooperation between 'New Russia' and 'New Europe'.

Ukraine is a country caught in a political tug of war: looking East to Russia and West to the European Union, this pivotal nation has long been a pawn in a global ideological game. And since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 in response to the Ukrainian Euromaidan protests against oligarchical corruption, the game has become one of life and death. In Ukraine: A Nation on the Borderland, Karl Schlögel presents a picture of a country which lies on Europe’s borderland and in Russia’s shadow. In recent years, Ukraine has been faced, along with Western Europe, with the political conundrum resulting from Russia’s actions and the ongoing Information War. As well as exploring this present-day confrontation, Schlögel provides detailed, fascinating historical portraits of a panoply of Ukraine’s major cities: Lviv, Odessa, Czernowitz, Kiev, Kharkov, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, and Yalta—cities whose often troubled and war-torn histories are as varied as the nationalities and cultures which have made them what they are today, survivors with very particular identities and aspirations. Schlögel feels the pulse of life in these cities, analyzing their more recent pasts and their challenges for the future.

Die Rede vom „russischen Raum“ bezieht sich nicht nur auf ein Stereotyp, sondern auf eine empirische Erfahrung, der die Weite und Größe Russlands – ob nun als Russisches Reich, Sowjetunion oder Russländische Förderation – zugrundeliegen. Dabei geht es nie nur um die physisch-geographische Ausdehnung eines Territoriums, sondern um die Implikationen eines spezifischen Raumes für den Verlauf von Geschichte, nicht zuletzt für die „Topographie der russischen Seele“ (Nikolaj Berdjaev). In der Vergangenheit ist der Diskurs zum „russischen Raum“ - wenn überhaupt – vorwiegend in völkerpsychologischen, essentialistischen und deterministischen Kategorien geführt worden. Der epochale Vorgang der Auflösung der Sowjetunion einerseits und die neue Aufmerksamkeit für die räumliche Dimension geschichtlichen Geschehens andererseits eröffnen eine Perspektive, in der Raum und Raumbewältigung als Probleme russischer Geschichte neu gedacht werden können. Mit Beiträgen von Mark Bassin, Oksana Bulgakowa, Roland Cvetkovski, Susi K. Frank, Klaus Gestwa, Carsten Goehrke, Wladislaw Hedeler, Katharina Kucher, Christian Noack, Susan E. Reid, Frithjof Benjamin Schenk, Karl Schlögel.

No European city has undergone as much upheaval in the past fifteen years as Moscow. The stage for the fall of a world empire and the rebirth of a globally-connected Russia, Moscow has transformed from a monochrome capital city to a new Babylon iridescent with neon lights. Karl Schlögel's Moscow offers a fascinating and engaging portrait of this international metropolis in transformation. First published in German in 1984, and now rapidly attaining the status of a classic work, this debut English edition of Moscow has been updated with a new introduction and conclusion covering the post-Soviet period. Schlögel describes the modern history of Moscow from various aspects as he explores the city's streets and unearths the rich histories of its buildings, monuments, and parks. A city where the past and future continually clash, Moscow struggles to define its global role in the twenty-first century, and Karl Schlögel's insightful essays in Moscow provide a valuable window into the complex and resilient character of the ever-evolving capital and its citizens.

Moscow, 1937: the soviet metropolis at the zenith of Stalin’s dictatorship. A society utterly wrecked by a hurricane of violence. In this compelling book, the renowned historian Karl Schlögel reconstructs with meticulous care the process through which, month by month, the terrorism of a state-of-emergency regime spiraled into the ‘Great Terror’ during which 1 ½ million human beings lost their lives within a single year. He revisits the sites of show trials and executions and, by also consulting numerous sources from the time, he provides a masterful panorama of these key events in Russian history. He shows how, in the shadow of the reign of terror, the regime around Stalin also aimed to construct a new society. Based on countless documents, Schlögel’s historical masterpiece vividly presents an age in which the boundaries separating the dream and the terror dissolve, and enables us to experience the fear that was felt by people subjected to totalitarian rule. This rich and absorbing account of the Soviet purges will be essential reading for all students of Russia and for any readers interested in one of the most dramatic and disturbing events of modern history.

An encyclopedic and richly detailed history of everyday life in the Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union is gone, but its ghostly traces remain, not least in the material vestiges left behind in its turbulent wake. What was it really like to live in the USSR? What did it look, feel, smell, and sound like? In The Soviet Century, Karl Schloegel, one of the world's leading historians of the Soviet Union, presents a spellbinding epic that brings to life the everyday world of a unique lost civilization.A museum of-and travel guide to-the Soviet past, The Soviet Century explores in evocative detail both the largest and smallest aspects of life in the USSR, from the Gulag, the planned economy, the railway system, and the steel city of Magnitogorsk to cookbooks, military medals, prison camp tattoos, and the ubiquitous perfume Red Moscow. The book examines iconic aspects of Soviet life, including long queues outside shops, cramped communal apartments, parades, and the Lenin mausoleum, as well as less famous but important parts of the USSR, including the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the voice of Radio Moscow, graffiti, and even the typical toilet, which became a pervasive social and cultural topic. Throughout, the book shows how Soviet life simultaneously combined utopian fantasies, humdrum routine, and a pervasive terror symbolized by the Lubyanka, then as now the headquarters of the secret police.Drawing on Schloegel's decades of travel in the Soviet and post-Soviet world, and featuring more than eighty illustrations, The Soviet Century is vivid, immediate, and grounded in firsthand encounters with the places and objects it describes. The result is an unforgettable account of the Soviet Century

History is often viewed as a sequence of events in chronological order, but Karl Schlogel emphasizes the significance of space in understanding history. He explores the relationship between historical events and their geographical contexts, examining landscapes, cities, maps, and even railway timetables. The book delves into intriguing questions, such as the origin of the name 'Everest' and what town layouts reveal about the American Dream. Schlogel presents a model for considering history within physical space, offering a stimulating exploration of how geography influences historical thought. His discussions cover various topics, from the evolution of geography in France to insights from a 1930s Berlin town directory that reflects vanished professions. Maps play a crucial role, with poignant examples like the 1938 atlas of emigration by the German Jewish community, which highlighted escape routes. Other subjects include Thomas Jefferson's mapping of the United States, the British survey of India, and the cartographers accompanying Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference, tasked with redrawing Europe's borders based on ethnicity. Schlogel skillfully navigates through history, spanning from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to 9/11, and from Vermeer’s art to the fall of the Berlin Wall, offering a fresh perspective on historical narratives.

"Can a drop of perfume tell the story of the twentieth century? Can a smell bear the traces of history? What can we learn about the history of the twentieth century by examining the fate of perfumes? In this remarkable book, Karl Schlögel unravels the interconnected histories of two of the world's most celebrated perfumes. In tsarist Russia, two French perfumers - Ernest Beaux and Auguste Michel - developed related fragrances honouring Catherine the Great for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. During the Russian Revolution and Civil War, Beaux fled Russia and took the formula for his perfume with him to France, where he sought to adapt it to his new French circumstances. He presented Coco Chanel with a series of ten fragrance samples in his laboratory and, after smelling each, she chose number five - the scent that would later go by the name Chanel No. 5. Meanwhile, as the perfume industry was being revived in Soviet Russia, Auguste Michel used his original fragrance to create Red Moscow for the tenth anniversary of the Revolution. Piecing together the intertwined histories of these two famous perfumes, which shared a common origin, Schlögel tells a surprising story of power, intrigue and betrayal that offers an altogether unique perspective on the turbulent events and high politics of the twentieth century. This brilliant account of perfume and politics in twentieth-century Europe will be of interest to a wide general readership."--Amazon.com